Americans United - Mormonismhttps://www.au.org/tags/mormonism
enBallots And Belief: Is There Room For God In The Voting Booth?https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/ballots-and-belief-is-there-room-for-god-in-the-voting-booth
<a href="/users/ostrow">Kurt Ostrow</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Maybe I don’t want my president to think he gets direct instructions from the Almighty. Maybe I don’t want my president to think creationism is good science.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>I graduated not so long ago from an all-male private high school, properly considered parochial, I’d say, for more than just its Catholic affiliation. And so, some of my freshest memories there date from the 2008 election.</p>
<p>I remember, for example, when – faced with the prospect of She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in the White House – Canada suddenly became just as appealing to my conservative classmates as it already was to me. And I can picture vividly (and no doubt hyperbolically – my flashbacks sometimes involve spittle) classmates decrying Mitt Romney for his Mormonism, a religion some labeled as a “cult.” They believed his reverence for Joseph Smith’s gold-tablet revelations made him unsuitable.</p>
<p>But wait, I said. Wait, wait, wait.</p>
<p>What about y’all’s Jesus? You know: water-walking, virgin-birthed, water-to-wine Prince of Peace. What, I protested, would make Catholics and Protestants intrinsically more electable than Mormons?</p>
<p>According to the American electorate, something does. If we look at the Pew Forum’s recent <a href="http://people-press.org/2011/06/02/section-2-candidate-traits-and-experience/#mormon">poll</a>, liberal Democrats – not Catholic conservatives – have the biggest concern about a Mormon president. While 68 percent of Americans find a candidate’s Mormonism electorally irrelevant, 25 percent say they’d be less likely to support a Mormon, a number that grows to 41 percent when isolating the liberal Democratic demographic.</p>
<p>My question, then, is not whether Americans <em>do</em> care about their candidates’ religions since of course they do. Nor is it <em>can</em> we? After all, the government can’t dictate on what “have-a-beer-with” or “pretty-smile” grounds I vote.</p>
<p>My question rather is: <em>should</em> we?</p>
<p>I admit my first instinct is to say no. Call it political correctness, liberality or whatever.</p>
<p>Apposite here is one of the Constitution’s very few mentions of religion. Article VI protects office-seekers from religious tests, a discriminatory practice common in Great Britain and some American colonies. An oath or affirmation to uphold the Constitution, sure, but “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”</p>
<p>No doubt another job-well-done by the Framers. We ought not to be halting campaigns solely on the basis of religious belief, after all.</p>
<p>But if we can’t institutionalize what amounts to religious discrimination, should we let it factor in public opinion? Should we tolerate or even encourage its relevance among the voters?</p>
<p>I worry about faiths (and <a href="http://crap.jinwicked.com/2006/04/04/those-dangerous-and-untrustworthy-atheists/">non-faiths</a>, as this comic strip rightly points out) enduring stigma, de facto keeping them out of office because of misinformed stereotypes. Atheists have no morals without God, we hear some say; how could we elect them? Catholics are all beholden to the Church in Rome, they said of John F. Kennedy; he could never represent our interests.</p>
<p>And if we approve the scrutiny of religious faith among our candidates and make it an implicit – no, that’s not quite right – make it <em>very publicly explicit</em> that we will only vote for the church-going and the God-fearing, then we force politicians to lie to us, to fake their faith. No one said it better than<em> </em><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7oiPIUtp7Q">West Wing Republican presidential candidate Arnie Vinick</a>, one of many brilliant speeches from an altogether brilliant series.</p>
<p>And yet, I can’t say my reservations are without reservations.</p>
<p>Let’s look back again to the 2008 primary race. A very memorable moment for me was when three of the Republican candidates <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ88l5ql_FQ">raised their hands</a> when asked, “Is there anyone who doesn’t believe in evolution?” And before that, George W. Bush claimed that “<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/oct/07/iraq.usa">God told him to end the tyranny in Iraq</a>.” (Maybe he missed God’s follow-up on the absence of WMD.) The list goes on. And on.</p>
<p>Maybe there are founded concerns about candidates’ religions. Maybe I don’t want my president to think he gets direct instructions from the Almighty. Maybe I don’t want my president to think creationism is good science.</p>
<p>But what’s too far? Where’s the proverbial line-drawing? Is it secular candidates or bust?</p>
<p>I don’t think so. (Thankfully – the alternative would certainly leave viable candidates few and far between.)</p>
<p>I don’t think any candidate’s Christian belief in resurrection or transubstantiation (though it might not be my own) should preclude him/her from office. And it’d be parochial of me to think so. If a Buddhist or Hindu candidate goes in for reincarnation, so be it.</p>
<p>I think, maybe, I draw the line when religious belief impacts or dictates public policy, when it will impose on what I believe or don’t believe. So, scratch what I said above. It’s <em>not</em> that I care that my president’s dialoguing skyward; I care when he or she makes weighty policy decisions based on those conversations, rather than on our intel. It’s <em>not</em> that I care my president thinks creationism is good science; I care when he or she thinks it’s appropriate for high school biology class.</p>
<p>To be sure, this needs more puzzling and sorting and considering. But as we all gear up for the 2012 presidential race, we should at least remain aware of <em>how</em> and <em>why</em> we care about our candidates’ perspectives on religion – not just that we do.</p>
<p><em>Kurt Ostrow -- Brown University '13.5, Religious Studies -- is interning with Americans United’s Field Department this summer.</em></p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/arnie-vinick">Arnie Vinick</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/article-vi">Article VI</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/mitt-romney">Mitt Romney</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/mormonism">Mormonism</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/pew-forum">Pew Forum</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/west-wing">The West Wing</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/voting-and-religion">voting and religion</a></span></div></div>Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:21:56 +0000Kurt Ostrow2562 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/ballots-and-belief-is-there-room-for-god-in-the-voting-booth#comments